Imputation of race/ethnicity to enable measurement of HEDIS performance by race/ethnicity.

Objective: To improve an existing method, Medicare Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (MBISG) 1.0 that augments the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) administrative measure of race/ethnicity with surname and geographic data to estimate race/ethnicity.

Data Sources/study Setting: Data from 284 627 respondents to the 2014 Medicare CAHPS survey.

The Limited English Proficient Population: Describing Medicare, Medicaid, and Dual Beneficiaries.

The Limited English Proficient (LEP) population experiences well-documented suboptimal health outcomes and substandard provider experiences. The lack of national estimates on the size of the LEP population relative to the healthcare setting makes examining health outcomes for this population very difficult. This analysis addresses this limitation by publishing population estimates for LEP persons enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, and Duals (enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid).

Improving Measures of Sexual and Gender Identity in English and Spanish to Identify LGBT Older Adults in Surveys.

Purpose: The goal of this research is to advance the study of health disparities faced by older sexual and gender minorities by assessing comprehension of and improving measures of sexual and gender identity in surveys.

Methods: Cognitive interviews were conducted by expert interviewers with 48 non-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (non-LGBT) and 9 LGBT older English and Spanish speakers.

Results: All respondents were able to answer questions about their sex assigned at birth and current gender identity successfully despite some cisgender respondents' lack of clear understanding of the transgender response option.

Health Indicators for Older Sexual Minorities: National Health Interview Survey, 2013-2014.

Purpose: Advances in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (sexual minority [SM]) acceptance and equality have been made in the past decade. However, certain SM subgroups continue to be disadvantaged due to lack of data and, thus, lack of knowledge about these populations. Data for older sexual minorities are especially lacking and will be increasingly important as more sexual minorities enter older age.

Overtreatment and Deintensification of Diabetic Therapy among Medicare Beneficiaries.

Background: Deintensification of diabetic therapy is often clinically appropriate for older adults, because the benefit of aggressive diabetes treatment declines with age, while the risks increase.

Objective: We examined rates of overtreatment and deintensification of therapy for older adults with diabetes, and whether these rates differed by medical, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics.

Design, Subjects, And Main Measures: We analyzed Medicare claims data from 10 states, linked to outpatient laboratory values to identify patients potentially overtreated for diabetes (HbA1c < 6.